Monday, November 28, 2016

Thxgvg 11

Hey Mom!
Haha sounds like you guys had a fun week! I'm glad to hear your Thanksgiving worked out well, and that everybody had a good time. Dad sent some of the family pics as well. Christmas sweaters, nice. Just a heads up I picked up my own sweater a while back, and it's pretty awesome.
Funny enough, our Thanksgiving had a bit of a delay as well haha. We were set up to go to an American family in the branch's place, but President had a surprise conference on Skype with all the district leaders in the mission... at the exact same time. So I sent the rest of the guys to their place while I was on the conference. I tried to make up for it by going to KFC that night, but the waitress got my order wrong. Later that night we got flaked haha. It was a rough holiday, but I think Heavenly Father was just giving me a test. The sisters felt bad, so they made an awesome Thanksgiving lunch on Friday, which we had as a district. Then on Saturday, we had a little celebration as a branch and ate some Thanksgiving pizza. On Sunday, the same family had us over again, so we could eat some of the leftovers. 3 Thanksgivings in 1! I guess you really do receive no witness until after the trial of your faith hahaha.
Other than all that, our week was pretty cool. I served on an exchange with Elder McMaster. Haha throwback to the MTC. It was really fun. We talked to some pretty interesting people on that exchange. One girl who was really cool and came to church. Another guy who claims to have been exorcised 3 times. All that good stuff. McMaster took his European driver's license test while I was with him as well. Apparently I'm not a good luck charm, cause he failed. What can you do?
We had a branch FHE last week, run by the missionaries. Usually they're pretty week, our games are pretty limited to cards and a chess board. We've also played Mafia before, but we were pretty worried for this last one. Luckily, one of the families brought Apples to Apples, and we had a real party. Brought back good memories.
Our teaching pool is doing pretty well. Our investigator who has been sick has been doing well. He's better now, or at least good enough to go to a recording of The Voice Polski. He invited us to come, but we figured that was probably not entirely in accordance with the spirit of our calling haha. Could've been fun. He said it was at least. Since last week though, he's begun to develop a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Really cool.
Hope you guys have a really fun week. Good luck with sports and everything, and have fun at the Christmas party! BTW, I sent out the package today! It's priority, so it should get there in time!
Love you tons!
Elder Haskett

Monday, November 21, 2016

Lego movie!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving!

Hey Mom!
That's fun that Thanksgiving is gonna be in Cali this year! I guess whether it's in AZ or CA, either way it'll be warm, so no problems. You guys should go with the Domingos to Disney on Thursday, seeing as the big dinner won't be til Friday haha.
Also I'm glad to hear that the boys have transitioned from one sports season to the next smoothly. Dad was telling me that Luke had a pretty sweet ace run against Balboa Bay. Nothing better than a setter that can serve and get it in haha, so you never have to start a game and miss the serve on the first rotation.
Welp, it's good that at least the sisters in the district are doing a good job keeping you guys updated. All the posing for pictures I guess payed off in the end. As for your winter questions, yeah, it's officially cold haha. I've stayed warm alright, but it's jackets and scarves every day now. The shoe dryer, as well as my mini blow dryer are doing a great job of keeping me warm and dry. You wouldn't believe how effective sticking the blowdryer in your shirt/pants is at immediately heating things up.
So the highlights of the week! We had a General Authority come to visit for Zone Conference! Elder Paul Johnson and his wife came and they were awesome. Before the meeting started off, we were all chilling, and I actually got a chance to have an interview with him. We talked about some cool stuff, how the mission was doing, etc, and then he basically spent an hour and a half telling all the missionaries in this mission how cool they were. Haha it was a bit of a confidence booster, so everyone's been feeling pretty good lately. Also, during the talk, he actually quoted something that I said during the interview. It's probably because he thought I was pretty noble. Look forward to the next time he speaks in Conference, he'll probably give me a shoutout or something.
Other than that, we also had an opportunity to start meeting with a less-active member here, and we're seeing a lot of growth. He's been very happy to be able to start coming back to church and has made a goal to go to the temple as soon as possible. 
The office elders here are meeting with a couple from Spain right now through Skype, and they're preparing for baptism. Since I'm the DL, I have to do an interview with them, so I got to meet and get to know them last week. It was pretty cool, teaching a lesson over Skype, and honestly, these people seemed super prepared. I get one more meeting with them, and then they want to be baptized this Saturday.
So I want to tell you guys about an area where we do finding activities in Warsaw a lot. It's basically in the middle of everything, right next to the metro station, train station, the mall, and the city center. Basically it's packed, and it's nuts. We had a really crazy activity a few days ago. So first off, there's a dude there that just drums on a wooden crate, all day long. No breaks. Literally stands there for hours just drumming. So he was there on Friday, as usual. Then this guy came into the middle of the area where we all were, put on some headphones, and started singing as loud as he could. Some of the highlights were Forever Young, where he hit the high notes like a pro, and Take Me to Church, where he put both middle fingers up to the world, and spun around, showing us all who's boss. Pretty impressive show. A Catholic priest walked up to us, didn't say a word, and very dramatically dangled a rosary in our faces, which, to him was probably the equivalent of damming us, or at least casting out evil spirits. Then, last but not least, we got contacted by 2 Presbyterian missionaries from South Korea, who taught us a lesson, then stood by our table for about a half an hour. What a day.
Basically a really good week on our end! Love you Mom!
Elder Haskett

Monday, November 14, 2016

Warsaw

November 11

Hey Mom!
Haha I have to say, no one here thought Trump could win it either, but we were all shocked. I had tons of Polish people texting me and keeping me updated on everything haha. It was funny. I think they cared about it more than I did. Luckily, our encouragement to stay neutral on politics in conversation was pretty easy to follow. That being said, a lot of people were either making fun of us on the streets, or fist pumping for Trump's victory.
We're getting excited for Christmas over here as well. I know Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet, but the carols are already playing every morning. The missionaries love Christmas! Also this transfer actually ends the day after Christmas. So I'll get to tell you about where I'm going over Skype!
It's also good to hear that Blake is doing better. I bet that at least being at a basketball game again got his spirits up. That would do it for me at least.
So our week... our investigator got baptized! It was a crazy week, he decided on Monday, and then the days following were just nuts, trying to get interviews and the font set up. But the stress was worth it. He was baptized on Saturday, then confirmed and given the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday! We're super happy for him, and the branch was really excited as well. The same day of the baptism, we were actually able to help another investigator commit to baptism in December. He's doing really well, and we're even talking about introducing his wife to the church. The other day he texted me and was like, "After our meeting on Saturday, I wanted to try to be a better person, so I took a homeless man to get some dinner. I felt the Spirit really strongly!" Basically we went to bed Saturday feelin pretty good haha.
With a week like that, I'm feeling pretty good in Warsaw haha. The branch is doing really well, and they continue to deliver on the food. The meal of the week this week was a crazy good lasagna. Warsaw life haha.
We're still teaching English classes once a week. We've got a ton of students here. On top of that, we pretty much try to teach as much as possible where people are going to be. If that's outside on the streets, in a park, or tracting, then that's where we're at haha. I can't wait for December to come around so we can start carolling!
So far we've spent most of our PDays getting acquainted with the city, but we've also been to the national stadium here, and today we might go to the rynek to see the sites. For culture night, I'm pushing for us to go see Les Mis in Polish. That would be awesome!
Haha Sister Beem recognized me on sight from the name. It was pretty crazy, but cool to see that once again, we live in a small world. She's pretty chill though. Good missionary.
That's pretty much all I got this week! I'm still finding last things to send home for Christmas! Found some sweet stuff already! Look forward to it!
Love you tons,
Elder Haskett

Monday, November 7, 2016

November 6th

Hey Mom!
It sounds like you had a pretty fun week! Glad to hear that you guys are still enjoying Disneyland, I gotta say, I was craving a corn dog pretty bad these last few days haha. I think it's because I'm used to having these shops called Żabka everywhere, and you can get a good dog there for less than a dollar. They don't have them in Warsaw:(
I still remember the World of Color show. I saw the first half, but then this guy threw his daughter up on his shoulders and it was over. I think you can imagine how uncomfortable asking him to stop would be, as I, a 17 year old would be able to see, and his daughter, probably 3 or 4 years old, would not.
Crazy to think that soccer is almost over. The semester is almost over too. I'm excited for Christmas, but it's way weird to think that time is going this fast. 
Generally speaking, if you ever want a really noble sounding scripture about missionary work, or courage, or facing your fears, you can look to the epistles of Paul haha. 2 Timothy is a pretty good example. There's some good stuff in Romans as well.
I heard about Blake, that's some really sad news. I hope he knows though that a successful mission has nothing to do with the visible outcome, but the way it changes you. I've seen him grow up quite a bit, and it's been impressive. He really loved his mission, and I think that judging from that fact, he had a successful mission. All the guys have been praying for him to heal up quick. 
As for our week, things in Warsaw have been going pretty well! No ping pong, but still a fun time. Elder Barlow and I are getting along well. We don't have much in common as far as mutual interests go, as he's into swimming and ROTC, but we've bonded over the joys of singing really loudly and laughing at the crazy stuff that happens in Poland. Pretty much an infalliable way to make friends.
The big city of Warsaw is a jungle, haha. I'm getting around fine, but it's more of a bear to get familiar with than any city I've been in before. We haven't actually been to the mission home at all. That's fine, I'm just looking forward to the last night in the field party that we'll have when the whole gang makes it to Warsaw. Right now, 3 of the 5 from the OG MTC group are here, and it's been a blast.
Our teaching pool is doing pretty well. We've got one guy who's gettin pretty serious about baptism. I fasted for him yesterday, and things are looking good. Our others are moving a lot slower, but we're still doing well. We'll see what happens!
Interesting stories for the week: we were playing basketball with the other missionaries, and a sister in the zone literally got her ankles broken. She's in a purple cast haha.
Also, we had All Saint's Day this week! It was really cool. I've got some good pics for you all. 
An American family fed us last night! We had a loaded potato soup and some real bacon, straight outta the US, and it was fantastic!
That's pretty much everything from the week though! Love you Mom!
Elder Haskett